Building on the Canadian approach to resolve the stalemate on the trade and environment agenda in the World Trade Organization
Journal of International Trade Law and Policy
ISSN: 1477-0024
Article publication date: 19 June 2009
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the competing views on the link between trade and environment in the World Trade Organization (WTO), and come up with a proposal that better clarifies the scope of legality of environmentally motivated unilateral trade measures in the multilateral trading system.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a doctrinal approach to legal research in providing an exegesis on the various efforts towards the integration of trade and environment in the WTO framework.
Findings
Employing the theory of transnational social justice as its analytical tool, the paper suggests that a state contemplating the use of environmentally motivated unilateral trade measures first extend positive measures to the communities in other states that are affected by the purported measure. Accordingly, it argues that unilateral trade measures are allowed in the system only as a last resort and only if their application runs congruent to the values and objectives recognized by the system.
Originality/value
It is hoped that the discussion and proposition in this paper will contribute to the discourse on the clarification of the status of environmentally motivated unilateral trade measures in the WTO.
Keywords
Citation
Dagne, T. (2009), "Building on the Canadian approach to resolve the stalemate on the trade and environment agenda in the World Trade Organization", Journal of International Trade Law and Policy, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 159-180. https://doi.org/10.1108/14770020910981489
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited